From “The Great British Writing Show: Alexandrines Pt. 1” by GBC

NARRATOR: For her alexandrine, Rani has chosen to double up on her masculine rhymes and write in spicy dactylic hexameter as opposed to iambic pentameter. With 8 stanzas, it’s also a very long alexandrine.

[PETER and MARIE stop by RANI‘s station, where RANI is preparing her stanzas for composition.]

PETER: Classical alexandrines are always rhymed in couplets alternating masculine rhymes and feminine rhymes. I see you’ve got two masculine rhymes together there.

RANI: Yes, well, I’m writing mine as more of a fusion, with some spice from a Spanish alejandrino.

PETER: You’ve set yourself up a challenge there, it’ll be difficult to get the syllables right. If you’re not careful, you’ll get soggy syllables especially near the end of your stanzas.

[MARIE points at RANI‘s unfinished stanzas.]

MARIE: I see you’re using dactylic pentameter instead of iambic hexameter. Any reason?

RANI: It’ll be faster for me to compose, so I can get all the stanzas ready and set before time runs out.

MARIE: It’s a challenging poem you’re writing here, but if you pull it off, I think the results may be quite scrummy.